Castro's Bomb (20 page)

The military had promised him a plan and now they were ready to show him what they'd come up with.
 
A very large map of Cuba hung on one wall of the Cabinet Room.
 
President Kennedy thought Cuba looked like a squashed snake.
 
He wished it'd been squashed.

Marine General Shoup would be the presenter.
 
"Where do you want me to begin, Mr. President?"

"At the beginning, general.
 
Assume nothing."
 

Kennedy wondered if the selection of the fifty-eight year old four star marine general was meant to intimidate him.
 
And why wouldn't it?
 
Shoup's record as a combat veteran was a mile long and included the Medal of Honor for heroism fighting the Japanese on Tarawa.
 
Of course he was intimidated.
 
All he'd done was gotten a Silver Star for losing PT-109.
 
Maybe the critics were right.
 
Maybe he should have been court martialed.

Shoup nodded agreement.
 
Only a fool assumes anything, he thought.
 
Shoup began with basic geographical facts.
 
Cuba was seven hundred miles long and two hundred miles wide at its widest point.
 
The island ran roughly from the northwest, Havana, to the southeast, Guantanamo Bay.
 
The city of Mariel was just to the west of Havana and that was the presumed main location of the Soviet forces in Cuba.

A little to the west of Guantanamo and also on the southern coast of Cuba was the port city of Santiago.

Shoup jabbed his pointer at the map.
 
"People like to say that Cuba is only ninety miles from the United States, but that's at its closest point and only important if you plan on swimming from Havana to Key West.
 
In reality, the majority of the island, including Guantanamo, is hundreds of miles farther away, which does create a logistical problem for our land based planes.
 
Simply put, they will not be able to spend as much time over the Guantanamo area as carrier based planes.
 
Nor do we have the option of putting planes on the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico.
 
The facilities for them just aren't there.
 
The best we can do is move planes south to Miami."

Shoup jabbed again.
 
He seemed to enjoy it.
 
"We see no need to reinvent the wheel, sir.
 
We have taken the liberty of alerting those forces that were going to be involved in attacking Cuba just two months ago as outlined in Operation Plan 316, or, more simply, OPLAN 316, along with some other units that we’ve decided to add.
 
As before, Admiral Robert L. Dennison, Commander In Chief U. S. Atlantic Command, will have overall command of the operation which will be called Joint Task Force 122, or JTF 122, as it was in October.
 
It originally called for a naval force centered on the nuclear carriers Enterprise and Independence, plus a number of other ships including the cruisers Newport News
and Canberra, and these and other ships are en route.
 
Three other carrier groups are beginning to make the journey.

"The airborne components will be the XVIII Airborne Corps, consisting of the 82nd Airborne from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and the 101st Airborne Division, from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
 
The First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton will be en route shortly, as will the Second Marine Division from Camp LeJeune, North Carolina.
 
These will be the initial landing force once the enemy is softened up enough.
 
Follow-up Army forces will include the First, Second, and Fourth Infantry Divisions, the First Armored Division, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment.
 
All of these troops are packing up and will be heading south as soon as they can and as soon as their personnel show up from leave, and yes, sir, this is a significantly larger force then was planned for back in October."

Shoup looked around the room for support and saw it.
 
"Mr. President, we strongly believe that the only way to launch an assault on Cuba is to do it with overwhelming force.
 
We send in too small a force and we'll suffer far heavier casualties than if we hit them harder."

Kennedy agreed.
 
People would die whatever he did.
 
He would do what was necessary to minimize casualties.

The marine commandant continued.
 
"The Air Force will mainly operate out of MacDill and Homestead and a number of other bases in Florida and elsewhere in the south.

Shoup paused for effect.
 
"In total, it will number more than half a million men."

Kennedy took a deep breath.
 
Even though he'd heard the numbers before, they were still staggering.

"At least the weather's in our favor," Shoup continued.
 
"This is the cooler, drier season so we've got a couple of months of decent weather before it begins to get hot and rainy."
 
He chuckled.
 
"We wouldn't want anybody to be uncomfortable."

Kennedy squirmed.
 
Was that a dig?
 
The Marine Corps Commandant was known to be outspoken.

General Shoup continued.
 
"Sir, if Castro wants a fight, we'll squash him.
 
There are, however, a few questions that need to be answered."

"Go ahead, general," Kennedy said quietly as he tried to digest everything he was being told.
 
Was all this firepower really at his command?
 
It was almost beyond comprehension.
 
And now he was already using it, sending men into harm's way.
 
American warplanes were clashing with MiGs and dodging missiles as they spoke, and bombs were falling, however ineffectively, on Cuban targets.

Shoup stood with his arms behind his back.
 
"We need to know our goals, sir.
 
Are we to simply recover Gitmo, or are we to topple Castro and recover Gitmo, or are we to conquer the whole damn island?
 
Please recall, sir, that Fidel has nearly four hundred thousand men under his command and, while we'd go through most of them like shit through a goose, there is a large number who are reasonably well trained, well equipped, and who would fight long and hard for their homeland and that would mean a lot of American casualties.
 
I don't really give a care about Cuban casualties, but I do care about ours.
   

"Also please recall that the original OPLAN called for an attack near Havana, while Gitmo is at the other end of the island, about five hundred miles away.
 
So, do we land at or near Guantanamo, or Havana, or both?
 
We need to know so we can begin to plan in detail.
 
Of the two, retaking Gitmo would be the easiest and would involve fewer U. S. casualties, but it would still leave Castro in charge of Cuba."

"What are we up against?" Kennedy asked.

"As stated, sir," Maxwell Taylor answered.
 
"At they have at least four hundred thousand men in their army, more than one hundred and fifty tanks, all of them Russian T34 and T54s.
 
They lost an unknown number taking Gitmo and more since then, but they still have a lot left over.
 
The remainder are now well hidden and we don't know how many they have around either Gitmo or Havana."

LeMay injected angrily.
 
"And they have more than fifty MiG 17 and 19s."

Admiral Anderson smiled.
 
"At least their navy isn't worth much.
 
Little more than some patrol boats.

Taylor concluded.
 
"For a small Caribbean nation, they are very well armed."

There was silence in the room.
 
Finally, Lyndon Johnson spoke. "Hell, I say we go in whole hog and dump Castro into a sewer where he belongs.
 
That son of a bitch has been a pain in the ass for three years now, and he simply can't get away with killing our people and stealing our base.
 
I know the United Nations isn't going to like that and maybe the Organization of American States will get their collective tits in a wringer too, but the hell with all of them.
 
Both the UN and the OAS are a bunch of whiny pussies."

Kennedy thought quickly.
 
While he basically supported the thoughts of his outspoken vice president, there were other factors to consider.
 
The United Nations was going to meet in emergency session, and Soviet Ambassador Dobrynnin was racing back to Washington and wanted to meet with him.
 
Add to that the fact that there were nearly twenty thousand Soviet soldiers still in Cuba, and, although their strategic nuclear missiles had gone, and there was the very real possibility of escalation if Russians were attacked.

Kennedy stood.
 
"You will prepare two plans.
 
The first will involve only the recovery of Guantanamo Bay and the taking of whatever surrounding areas we need to secure the base for the foreseeable future, and the second will be for the recovery of the base as well as the conquest of the entire island.
 
Both plans will include sufficient safeguards to keep the Russians out of the fighting."

He left the room and walked back to the Oval Office.
 
His brother followed him, a stunned look on his face.
 
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a media darling.
 
He and his lovely wife Jacqueline and all their relatives lived in a fairy-tale land the press called Camelot.
 
But who the hell just stole Camelot?

General Juan Ortega hated flying on principle and hated flying in a small plane with a passion.
 
Thus, he was beyond miserable in the tiny Piper Cub.
 
It contained a pilot and himself and the pilot was under orders to fly as low as possible in order to appear innocuous to the American fighters whose contrails drew lines in the sky.
 

The pilot, an air force captain, interpreted this to mean that he shouldn't fly more than a hundred feet above Cuban soil and much lower if possible.
 
On several occasions treetops slapped against the belly of the plane and, frequently, people and cattle scattered in fright.

Ortega threw up twice during the trip and repeatedly cursed the pilot who cheerfully ignored him.
 
His orders were to deliver Ortega to Havana safely and that was what he was going to do.

Ortega was relieved and able to breathe deeply again when the tiny plane touched down at a dirt field outside Havana.
 
He thanked the pilot for a safe ride and informed him he'd be executed the next dawn.
 
The pilot laughed and said he'd be happy to fly the general back to Guantanamo.
 
They shook hands.
 
The American jets in the sky had not threatened them and that was a miracle of sorts in itself.
 

A civilian Chevrolet met him and he was driven to Castro's secret headquarters in the outskirts of town where he was met and greeted effusively by both Fidel and Raul Castro.

Fidel was taller and reached down to embrace Ortega.
 
"Congratulations on a job done magnificently.
 
Guantanamo is again ours and all Cuba is rejoicing.
 
I am sorry that we'll have to delay the victory parade, but the Americans are likely to bomb it if we present them with too many juicy targets.
 
We believe that they will not bomb Havana, not at this time anyway, but who needs to take chances."

"I prefer to live to a prudent old age, comrade," Ortega answered.
 
He was delighted by Fidel's enthusiasm.
 
He had only met El Presidente a couple of times before the planning had begun on the attack on Guantanamo.

"Who wouldn't," Fidel chuckled.
 
He stuck a cigar in his mouth but didn't light it.
 
"Still, I want you to know that all Cuba is proud of what you have done in driving the imperialist running dogs from our land. I am going to leave you with Raul while I go and try to govern Cuba, but first, I want you to know that you have been promoted.
 
You are, next to me, Raul and Che, the most senior military man in Cuba.
 
This means that virtually all of our military strength is at your disposal."

Ortega was stunned.
 
"I'm honored."

Fidel slapped him on the back and handed him a cigar.
 
"Just as we are honored to have you on our side.
 
Now, you and Raul must plan to defend what we have gained."

When Fidel had left, Raul Castro, younger than Fidel by five years, stared hard at Ortega.
 
Raul had the reputation of a man who was far more severe than his older brother when it came to transforming the corrupt and capitalist former Cuba into a socialist economy where there would be neither wealth nor poverty.
 
Many felt that Raul's hard line approach to seizing land and wealth from the rich had resulted in so many tens of thousands fleeing to Florida.

"Comrade General," Raul said, "What do you think the Americans will do now?"

Ortega didn't hesitate.
 
"They will attack us.
 
We have something that they want back very much.
 
The little pinprick air attacks of theirs are of no consequence yet.
 
They lack targets and direction."

Raul smiled grimly.
 
"You are to be congratulated not only on the way you took the base, but how you've managed to keep the Americans from detecting our tanks and soldiers."